The State of Youth Education in South Africa

Us South Africans love discussion. In the current state of our country, there are conversations about anything and everything popping up. In every corner of each home, we're deciding what story to tell.

For us at Imagnary House, these discussions usually centre around the children and youth of our country. How will the current political situations affect them? What can they do about it? Are they being educated? What future are we moulding for them? As in any discussion about this, our questions are numerous... and most of the time, we've been short on answers.

To hold valuable discussions about our children and the future of our youth, we need to understand their situation. We need to know the hard stats. So, when we discovered a little web app called Youth Explorer... we were blown away.

It's exactly what we've been looking for.

Youth Explorer - Verified Comparable Stats on South Africa's Children

Youth Explorer is a web app that allows you to discover all census and previously unavailable data for Western Cape youth. What's wonderful about the app, though, is that it presents this information in a way that the layman can understand. Its primary objective is educating us, the people.

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.” - Baba Dioum

The app currently covers stats for only the Western Cape, and seemingly only in English. But the creators are hard at work to make it more widely available, and have said that a national version will be launched around June 2017.

To use the tool, you simply enter the area that you want to explore into the primary search bar.

In a matter of seconds, the tool pulls together all relevant information on the youth in that area. You're first presented with a brief summary of all the data and a map of your chosen area.

It then outlines all the data in detail in easy-to-understand infographics. In detail, the app covers statistics like: demographics, education, literacy, crime, pregnancy, and more.

The wonder doesn't stop there.

The app creators went further, and have included the function to compare two areas beside each other. This means you can see all of this data for two different areas in the Western Cape, and quickly compare the current state of their youth.

You simply type another area into the secondary search bar once you've completed your first search.

We encourage you to hop on over and browse the app, educate yourself on the youth of country, and use this information to empower your discussions about South Africa's future.

The Youth Explorer web app is thanks to these wonderful creators and sponsors below.